I haven’t written much since we’ve been in the states. Most of the time it feels like we are swimming in a fog of ‘to do’s’ and ‘right now’s’. I’ve had a little bit of a bad attitude about it, to be honest. The uprooting. The temporary re-rooting. The nomad life again, here it is. Uncertainty, and the trust that is required when you have to be dependent.

The two choices for those of us with small children, and a longer length HMA (home mission assignment) (1) are to travel around with your kids or find a home base so one of you can travel and the other can man the home. For us, we chose the latter. The children have been adopted into a Christian school (2) connected with our ‘foster’ church – for lack of a better word, and I stay home most of the time while Chris travels.

The church is nearby, and one I went to as a child for a while. Although they have a great presence in the community in the town we are living in, I often feel like a foster child, displaced, alone, but loved in spite of that. Even though we are outsiders, we are family in Christ. They take care of us, but they know as well as we do that our stay is temporary.

The temporal cloud hangs over all my interactions. When my daughter plays with her friends, I rejoice that she is being included and loved, then I mourn, knowing she’ll have to say goodbye in the near future. Every thought and feeling has two sides.

Sitting in my small group, not too long ago, we discussed the topic of sacrifice, and of sacrificing in love. Somehow I went on a tangent about our worldly goods, living without certain things in France, and again living in abundance in America.

I didn’t express what I wanted to. We live with less in France. Partly due to space, budget and the cost of goods, we scrutinize every purchase.

What I didn’t say was that after a short period of adjustment, it was liberating. My house didn’t look like it belonged in a magazine, it looked like it was meant for people to live there. My children didn’t need a closet stuffed with clothes, or shoes, they just needed one pair for this season and a couple of outfits. We made do, and then it became one less thing to worry about. We leaned on God instead of ourself, and he carried us.

We can talk about all the hardships, material, physical, and spiritual all day long, but I want to promise you this, we have it good. Our life is awesome. We are better for living with less, we can see the Lord’s work in the hardest of days, and when we are tired, we know that even Elijah needed a snack and a nap, and we are the better for it.

We have the best job ever. We get to share the gospel. To live is Christ and to die is gain. We get to pray with our kids. They’ve seen a big world, God’s big world. We have the privilege of serving the church. He’s letting us participate. How could we ever ask for anything more?

You want to know the hard stuff? This year is hard. Having our kids change schools and languages is hard, goodbyes are hard, transitions are hard, opening up is hard, being vulnerable is hard. But, man, it’s so, so, so good. We are lucky, blessed, humbled, amazed, and if you aren’t jealous, you should be. Even if you see me crying in a corner, be jealous, because this is the good life. The blinders are off, our great God is working. And we are anxious to get back to what He is doing in France, but in the meantime, we will hold on for the ride and enjoy our view of what He is doing in this small county in Florida, because big works happen in little places all the time. (3)

(1) They used to call this furlough, but since it is anything but restful, they changed the name.

(2) Seven Rivers Christian School and Church. The Preaching is amazing and the school is wonderful.

(3) Full Disclosure, I wrote this a couple months ago, but it’s still true, even though school’s out tomorrow. Then it’s transition time again, to summer, then Lord willing and support depending, we’ll have another transition in our near future.